2 ms·

The rise of flashy new job titles

3 points by _8j50 4y ago

eesmith 4y ago
Hasn't this been true, at least in "creative" industries, for decades? I mean, this piece mentions "chief innovation evangelist", which is little different than the dot-com era "chief evangelist", derived in turn from Guy Kawasaki who was, as I recall, chief evangelist at Apple back in the 1980s. (He definitely promoted the idea in the 1990s.) Or, citing "Write your own job title" from Business Week August 28, 2000: ] Spurred on by the creative titles to be found in the dot com economy, traditional American corporates are increasingly using newfangled titles of their own. According to a recent article in Business Week, modern job titles include “Chief Talent Scout” used by a Florida software company to describe their head of recruitment, “Director of Consumer Delight and Loyalty” hired by a San Francisco dot com, and “Chief Experience Officer”, a title developed by US headhunter Russell Reynolds Associates. - https://archive.org/details/workingwithameri0000stew/page/78/mode/2up?q=job+title https://archive.org/details/workingwithameri0000stew/page/78... > altered job titles can help make an employee feel more valued at a company. That suggestion has also been around for a while. I'm used to it as the difference between your internal job title (which, as the article says, helps specify ones position and responsibilities) and a business card job title, which can be more fanciful. For example, from Infoworld in 2006: ] The best way to capture candidates with hot skills is to pay extra through a signing bonus or a retention bonus, Foote recommends, “and give them an informal job title that will differentiate [the employee] because we believe this skill is more valuable than others.” - https://archive.org/details/computerworld4046unse/page/46/mode/2up?q=%22and+give+them+an+informal+job+title%22 https://archive.org/details/computerworld4046unse/page/46/mo...
sklargh 4y ago
Sample limited to my experience. A highly customized job title is a leading indicator of incompetence or a personality that’s going to be challenging to work with.

3 points by _8j50 4y ago

Hasn't this been true, at least in "creative" industries, for decades? I mean, this piece mentions "chief innovation evangelist", which is little different than the dot-com era "chief evangelist", derived in turn from Guy Kawasaki who was, as I recall, chief evangelist at Apple back in the 1980s. (He definitely promoted the idea in the 1990s.) Or, citing "Write your own job title" from Business Week August 28, 2000: ] Spurred on by the creative titles to be found in the dot com economy, traditional American corporates are increasingly using newfangled titles of their own. According to a recent article in Business Week, modern job titles include “Chief Talent Scout” used by a Florida software company to describe their head of recruitment, “Director of Consumer Delight and Loyalty” hired by a San Francisco dot com, and “Chief Experience Officer”, a title developed by US headhunter Russell Reynolds Associates. - https://archive.org/details/workingwithameri0000stew/page/78/mode/2up?q=job+title https://archive.org/details/workingwithameri0000stew/page/78... > altered job titles can help make an employee feel more valued at a company. That suggestion has also been around for a while. I'm used to it as the difference between your internal job title (which, as the article says, helps specify ones position and responsibilities) and a business card job title, which can be more fanciful. For example, from Infoworld in 2006: ] The best way to capture candidates with hot skills is to pay extra through a signing bonus or a retention bonus, Foote recommends, “and give them an informal job title that will differentiate [the employee] because we believe this skill is more valuable than others.” - https://archive.org/details/computerworld4046unse/page/46/mode/2up?q=%22and+give+them+an+informal+job+title%22 https://archive.org/details/computerworld4046unse/page/46/mo...

sklargh 4y ago

Sample limited to my experience. A highly customized job title is a leading indicator of incompetence or a personality that’s going to be challenging to work with.